Troilus

Achilles (far right) prepares to ambush Troilus (on horseback) Attic black figure hydria c. 525-550 BC British Museum Troilus, or Troilos, was in Greek myth a prince of Troy, the youngest son of King Priam and brother to Hector and Paris. Troilus was only a boy when the ten-year seige of Troy by the Greeks began, and a prophecy was made that if he lived to his twentieth birthday, the city of Troy would survive. The Greeks were aware of this prophecy, and plotted to take adavantage of it One day, when he was still only nineteen, Troilus ventured out of the city walls to draw water from a well with his sister Polyxena.   They were ambushed by the Greek warrior Achilles, who had come to kill Troilus and so demoralize the Trojans. Troilus fled into a temple of Apollo for shelter, but Achilles pursued him and cornered the youth near the altar.  In awe of the prince's beauty, Achilles offered to spare Troilus' life if he agreed to become the warrior's eromenos.  Troilus refused, and was promptly killed by Achilles on the very altar of the temple. Enraged at this sacrilege, Apollo swore vengeance on Achilles, as did Polyxena. Later in the war, Polyxena used a ruse to lure Achilles into the same temple under a flag of truce, after which her brother Paris fired a poisoned arrow at Achilles.  Apollo guided it directly into Achilles' vulnerable heel, and the warrior died in agony. The account of Troilus' death at the hands of Achilles is not contained in the Iliad, but is in fact one of several apocryphal accounts of the Trojan War made by later writers. He is in fact better known for his love for Cressida, a relationship immortalized in Chaucer's poem Troilus and Chrysida, and especially Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. Links: The Death of Troilus Achilles Slays Troilus, detail from Greek ceramic Achilles and Patroclus Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (DL SunSITE)